So, I've seen people posting AI art adopts and stuff. There's AI sites and sellers that let you have full rights to images. I don't understand why you would buy them?? Even if you have full rights, you would still need to draw or commission someone to finalize the design. Consider the process of character creation, esp. different clothing/armor, alt forms, AUs, etc. You would have to commission artists with contracts that explicitly state that you gain full rights to the refined design(s). Scenario A: someone comms an artist to draw their OC and hands over a clean ref sheet, the artist clearly depicts the same OC. Scenario B: the artist is given the AI image as reference and uses their imagination to create a cohesive design. At that point, if the finalized design differs greatly from the original, isn't it considered to be derivative? Like, the AI image does exist, but there's no character to draw from, it needs to be refined/created. Especially if the original is only a headshot